Description of the Prior Art
Every year, wild fires burn across the United States. Vast areas of forest land in the American mid-west such as Montana, Idaho and Wyoming burn every year. These fires are started by campers being careless with camp fires and lightning. The wild fires often spread quickly and threaten towns, homes and property.
In the year 2000 alone, 27,000 fire fighters combated 73,000 separate fires. These fires claimed over 6.3 million acres. The cost of fighting these wild fires is estimated to be 1 billion dollars. The total economic loss from fires, including property damages and loss of businesses, is estimated to be 10 billion dollars. More importantly, every year, many fire-fighters lose their lives combating the blazes.
Many types of equipment are used to combat wild fires. An effective tool is the use of airplanes to drop fire retardant chemicals and water on the affected area. Water is used to extinguish the blaze, whereas fire retardant chemicals are used to stop the advancement of the fire. Regardless of the advancement in firefighting equipment, the most work is done by fire-fighters on the ground.
Firefighters combat the blaze by extinguishing the fire directly or starting a backfire. A backfire is the controlled burn of forest in advance of the forest fire. By burning the land, a fire line is created. When the forest fire advances to the area burnt by the backfire, it can no longer advance for lack of fuel. Once a fire line is created by a backfire, the main blaze is allowed to burn itself out. This method is effective because the firefighters do not have to come in close proximity to the wild fire. However, backfires must be properly executed or they will become as great a problem as the original fire. It is important that the backfire advance in a direction toward the main forest fire. A sudden shift in winds can prevent the proper advancement of a backfire.
Firefighters on the ground use tools such as chain saws to create proper conditions for starting a backfire. Trees and heavy brush are cut and set ablaze when the conditions are optimal to cause a backfire to advance in a direction toward the main fire.
The prior art discloses several different types of apparatus using the exhaust of an engine to combat a fire. One such example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,237 (Colodner et al.). Colodner et al. discloses a combination fire extinguisher and blower. An internal combustion engine powers the blower and includes a hose coupled to the exhaust pipe cover and the air inlet of the blower. The hose pipe exhausts gas into the blower when such gas is needed to extinguish a fire. A second hose is provided on the blower having one end secured to a sleeve fastened to an air cooled nozzle and is used to blow air or exhaust gas, whenever needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,652, issued to Bennett, discloses a fire suppression system for an engine compartment of a vehicle. A remotely controlled throttle valve disposed within the exhaust duct of the engine selectively diverts exhaust gas through a bypass duct for mixing with ventilation air flow. By mixing the gases and the air flow, the oxygen content is reduced in the air flow over the engine. The reduced oxygen content will inhibit combustion.
Another prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,238, issued to Buchan. Buchan discloses a fire protection apparatus having spray nozzles oriented adjacent engines of an airplane. Quick connect coupling secure a conduit to the spray nozzles and deliver a fire extinguishing agent such as carbon dioxide directly to the engine to extinguish a fire.